The Clinic Scene: A Familiar Performance

Wiping the grease from a 6-millimeter bolt onto my thigh, I watched a woman in clinical scrubs stand frozen as a clinic manager pointed toward a massage table with a casual, dismissive flick of his wrist. I was there to recalibrate an imaging suite, a job that requires 46 specific points of inspection and zero room for error, but I couldn’t stop watching the scene in the hallway.

This therapist had already been through the 36-minute verbal gauntlet. She’d explained her philosophy on myofascial release, documented her 106 hours of continuing education, and navigated the awkward questions about ‘cultural fit.’ Then came the pivot that makes my blood boil.

Precision, Certification, and the Cost of Trust

I’ve spent 26 years as a medical equipment installer, and I’ve learned that the way people treat those who work with their hands tells you everything about the rot in the foundation of a company. If I’m installing a $586,000 piece of diagnostic equipment, the hospital doesn’t ask me to ‘just wire up one circuit for free’ to prove I know which way the current flows. They trust the certification, the bond, and the contract.

But in the world of manual therapy, there is this persistent, parasitic belief that a professional’s skills are a commodity to be sampled like a cube of cheese on a toothpick at a high-end grocery store. It’s an erosion of respect that starts at the hiring desk and ends with a burnt-out workforce.

The Orange Peel: A Metaphor for Applied Skill

I just peeled an orange in one piece, a long, spiraling ribbon of zest that smelled like sharp sunlight and focused effort. It’s a small, rhythmic thing I do when I’m thinking too hard about the mechanics of labor. It requires a specific kind of tension-if you pull too hard, the peel snaps; if you’re too tentative, you leave too much pith.

The Hustle and the Trap

They call it ‘due diligence.’ I call it a hustle. It’s a way to get free staff perks while keeping the upper hand. The candidate is in a vulnerable position; they want the job, so they don’t want to be the ‘difficult’ one who asks about compensation before they’ve even been hired.

I remember an installation I did 16 years ago in a basement lab. I made a mistake-a 6-degree tilt on a mounting bracket. It took me 26 hours to fix a 6-minute error because the concrete had already cured. I told the client, and I billed them for the extra time because my expertise was the product, including the expertise required to fix a mistake. That’s how a professional relationship works.

Trade Skill vs. Trade Skill: Why the Exception?

Whether you are installing a cardiac monitor or releasing a psoas muscle, you are using a lifetime of accumulated knowledge to affect a physical outcome. Why is the massage therapist the one expected to provide the free trial? You wouldn’t ask a lawyer to ‘just write one quick 16-page brief’ for free to see if their grammar is up to snuff.

The body is not a vending machine; you don’t get a free snack to see if the buttons work.

The Cost of Keeping Dignity

I’ve seen therapists walk out of those interviews, and honestly, I cheer for them every time. There was one guy, maybe 26 years old, who looked the manager dead in the eye and said, ‘My demo rate is $76 for thirty minutes, payable now. If you hire me, you can credit it back to my first week’s pay.’

The manager looked like he’d been slapped with a wet fish. He wasn’t used to someone knowing their own worth. That therapist didn’t get the job, of course. But he kept his dignity, and in a 46-year career, dignity is the only thing that doesn’t depreciate.

The Price of the Peel

We have become a society that values the fruit but treats the skill required to get to it as an after-thought. We want the massage, but we don’t want to pay for the interview that proves the person can actually give it.

I’ll pack my tools, sign the log, and send a bill that reflects every single minute I spent in this building. The world doesn’t run on favors; it runs on the fair exchange of value. It’s time the treatment room started operating with the same level of professional integrity as the engineering bay. Next time the door opens and the manager points to the table, ask for the invoice pad. Watch how fast the ‘necessity’ of a demonstration disappears when it actually costs them something.